National Book Award and Prix Femina winner Joyce Carol Oates returns to fictional Sparta, New York, to trace the erotic and violent passions between two families. A waitress and singer, Zoe Kruller was found beaten and strangled in 1983. Her young son Aaron, suppressing the thought that his father could be responsible, instead blames her lover Eddy Diehl. And while Eddy himself only lives another five years, his young daughter Krista is sure Aaron's father is the cause of all the violence. Told in the very different voices of Krista and Aaron, this tale is classic Oates—where the lyricism of intense sexual love is intertwined with the anguish of loss, and tenderness is barely distinguishable from cruelty.

"Little Bird of Heaven starts with the urgency of a thriller, then turns into something more existential as the years (and pages) go by.... This is a tragedy on a classical scale.... Oates has written a feminist novel with empathy for men, especially men without power, with no voice besides violence."—NYTBR